So
I hear her crying and spot her: head bowed, sunglasses shielding her eyes, crouched, rocking at the base of a Macy’s denim display. I approach tentatively, and ask if she’s okay. She stands, removes glasses. I notice the dark circles, disheveled hair and wonder when she last slept, showered. A hospital visitor sticker clings to her rumpled t-shirt. I open my arms. She steps into my embrace, and we are like awkward teenagers, slow dancing. “My mom’s dying,” she says. “I’m so sad.” I hold her so she’s not alone, so I’ll never forget, so we hear each other’s breath.
Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jennifer Lang lives in Tel Aviv, where she runs Israel Writers Studio. Her essays have appeared in Baltimore Review, Crab Orchard Review, Under the Sun, Ascent, Consequence, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays nominee, she holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and serves as Assistant Editor for Brevity. Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-shorts will be published in 9/2023 and Landed: a yogi’s memoir in pieces & poses in 10/2024 by Vine Leaves Press. Find her on Facebook, Instagram, and the web.
